March 11, 2025 • 28 mins
At a time when public trust in media continues its precipitous decline, what does it take to build a news organization that truly serves its community? In this revealing conversation, Craig Fahle sits down with Laurén Abdel-Razzaq, Executive Director of Bridge Detroit, to explore how hyperlocal journalism can reconnect citizens with the information they need most. The conversation delves into the profound challenges facing journalism today: shrinking attention spans, the proliferation of misinformation, and the fundamental question of how to earn community trust. "Trust is very easy to lose and extremely difficult to get," Abdel-Razzaq explains, outlining how Bridge Detroit builds relationships before they need to rely on them, particularly in communities traditionally underserved by mainstream media. Whether you're concerned about the state of media, interested in community-centered approaches to information, or simply curious about innovative models for rebuilding trust, this conversation offers valuable insights into how we might reimagine journalism for a fractured age.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Craig Fahle (00:10):
Greetings everyone and welcome to the VVK podcast.
I'm your host, craig Folley.
On this program.
We connect you with peopledoing important work in our
community and hopefully we learnsomething along the way, and
one of the things I plan to doon occasion for this program is
to introduce you to some mediamembers who are tasked with
bringing you the news andinformation that you need to be
informed.
(00:30):
The hard work of reporters,editors, anchors, news directors
and publishers is a criticalcomponent of our democracy, and
all of them play an importantrole in the work that we do here
at VVK.
Now, as a communications NPRagency, we know how critical
clear, honest and impactfulcommunication is, not only for
organizations but for thecommunities they serve.
(00:52):
Today, we'll connect the dotsbetween effective messaging and
the essential work that BridgeDetroit does to communicate the
stories that matter most to thepeople of Detroit.
Today's guest is LorenAbdel-Rizak, executive Director
of Bridge Detroit.
Now, at a time when pollsroutinely show Americans' faith
in mainstream media is eroding,it is important to talk about
(01:12):
the impact that's having on ourdiscourse and our true
understanding of local, nationaland world events.
Bridge Detroit is taking aunique approach to building
audience trust.
We'll talk about that and alsoabout what we can do to
encourage people to seek outquality journalism and beat back
the dual threats ofmisinformation and
disinformation.
That's what's for dinner ontoday's VBK podcast.
(01:34):
Thanks for joining us.
Hey, welcome to the VVK podcast.
I'm Craig Folley, glad to haveyou with us today, and this is
(01:55):
an important discussion thatwe're going to have today,
because this is an interestingera we're living in when it
comes to the truth, when itcomes to journalism, when it
comes to people getting accuratereporting, accurate news and
building their opinions based onfacts, not conjecture, not
speculation, not flat-out lies.
It's a challenge to do so inthis day and age, mostly because
(02:16):
, frankly, our long-time mediais facing significant challenges
.
We have all seen staff cutbacksat major newspapers across the
country.
We've staff cutbacks at majornewspapers across the country.
We've seen ownership change atmajor newspapers across the
country.
We have seen new online andcable television players that,
basically, are skewing the newsany way they want, and we have
also seen social media have asignificant impact on what
(02:40):
people actually understand andwhere their base of knowledge is
coming from.
It is creating a challenge andit is showing up frankly in our
political results, and I don'tnecessarily want to suggest that
anybody made a bad vote orvoted the right way or anything
in this last election.
But whether or not you made yourdecision on who to vote for in
any election, was it based onfacts and relevant information?
(03:01):
And where do you go to getfactual information, something
you can trust?
It's becoming more and moredifficult for people to find
every single day, so this isgoing to be an ongoing
conversation I'm going to behaving on this podcast over the
course of however long it takesfor us to sort this out, and my
first guest on this year'sversion of the VVK podcast to
talk about it is LorenAbdel-Rizak.
(03:22):
She's the executive director atBridge Detroit, a part of
Bridge Michigan, a part of theCenter for Michigan.
Welcome to the program.
It's a pleasure to have youhere today.
Greg, thanks for having me onWell and I gave you a little bit
to think about there at thebeginning.
But you know, bridge Detroit issomething that didn't exist
until 2020.
And, frankly, you know we arepretty well covered here in
(03:42):
Detroit when it comes to a medialandscape.
We have a couple of differentradio stations that are
dedicated to doing news.
We have two daily papers, whichis something that most
communities can't say that theyhave.
We've got multiple televisionstations that take their local
news game fairly seriously andyou know we thought we had it
all, but we still started seeingthe same cutbacks that are
(04:02):
impacting everybody else.
Bridge Michigan comes along, Ithink back in about 2016 is when
they first formed.
Four years later, bridgeDetroit comes along to sort of
fill a gap that was created whenwe started seeing these
cutbacks.
Local news coverage was reallytaking a hit.
So talk a bit about BridgeDetroit, its creation and what
need you saw and how you thoughtyou might be able to fill it.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (04:25):
Well, first off, you're absolutely right.
Detroit is incredibly luckybecause there are not a lot of
cities out there that have twodaily papers or as many nightly
newscasts in different stationsout there.
The other reason Detroit isreally lucky is because there
are a lot of alternative andnonprofit news organizations
that are operating here as well,so if you are a resident in
(04:47):
this area, you have a lot ofdifferent options for getting
information.
Bridge Detroit was reallycreated to kind of, like you
said, fill a gap and provideservice to residents.
We are a hyper-local nonprofitnewsroom.
We're also nonpartisan, whichmeans that we're not going to
tell you who to vote for, how tovote, but we are going to tell
you the importance of why itmatters, why you should be
(05:09):
engaged in civic life, and soour goal and our mission really
is to provide residents ofDetroit with the resources, the
information and to empower themto be able to make good
decisions when it comes to theirown everyday lives.
Craig Fahle (05:24):
Well, you know, when you talk about hyperlocal,
especially here in a city likeDetroit and this is one thing I
learned in working withgovernment I mean trust is
everything.
Getting people to trust thatthe information that you're
bringing to them is accurate andsomething that is going to be
helpful to them is a reallydifficult thing to accomplish.
How much time did it take youto sort of figure out which
approach you needed to take tomake sure you were getting
(05:45):
through to people that are verynaturally skeptical towards a
lot of messaging?
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (05:49):
So this is an ongoing battle that we have
all the time.
I would never say like, oh,we've accomplished it, we've
earned trust.
So this is true for anynewsroom, including ours Trust
is very easy to lose and it'sextremely difficult to get, and
part of that is about beingconsistent.
We try to build ourselves as aplace where it's not
(06:11):
transactional.
We want to be able to reach outto people, talk to them, hear
their opinions, talk aboutreally just the big issues in
their lives, even if it'ssomething that on a larger scale
, isn't a huge impact, we wantto know and so that way we can
really build relationshipsbefore we have to rely on them.
And so I don't ever want toknock any of the other newsrooms
(06:33):
in town, because I did.
I used to work at the DetroitNews for 10 years, I worked at
Cranes for two, and so you knowevery reporter that's out there
works on building trust andworking, especially if you're
working a beat and you'retalking to the same group of
people over and over again.
The issue is that you knowthere's often a gap in terms of
(06:55):
low income, in terms of BIPOCaudiences, bipoc residents that
don't always get to have thatinteractive experience.
(07:30):
There's a Pew Research studythat was showing that you know,
the younger you are, the blackeryou thing happening to them.
We want to make sure that we'rein their communities, that they
know what we're doing, theyknow who we are and what our
values are ahead of time.
That's a very different modelthan some other organizations,
but it's also a testament tobeing independent and being able
to make our own decisions, notbeing owned by a hedge fund or
(07:51):
some other kind of biggerconglomerate.
We don't necessarily have to dothe daily rush of news.
In fact, at Bridge Detroit wedon't do the daily rush of news
because we know we can't do itas well as the news and the free
press and the TV stations, andso we're never going to try to
(08:13):
be that.
But we try to fill the gaps andspend our time talking about
some of the better things thatare going on in the community
that may be overlooked.
Craig Fahle (08:18):
Not just that, but you're also talking about
things that actually matter tothe people that you're serving
right now.
You know, if you go onto BridgeDetroit's website right now, you
can see stories that aretalking about foreclosure
prevention.
You can see stories about whatpeople need to do to become a
homeowner as opposed to a renter, you know, and talking about
programs that exist for peopleout there.
You talk about the risks topotential infrastructure damage.
(08:41):
You know, and what's going tohappen if we don't address some
of the underlying structuralproblems we have, with the water
main break, for instance, weexperienced a couple of weeks
ago or a week ago in SouthwestDetroit, and you know the fact
that, hey, without some action,this is going to continue
happening.
There are a lot of stories thatdirectly impact people where
they live.
That is not something younecessarily get and again, not
(09:03):
to knock the news and free pressor the TV news but they do
focus on, as you mentioned, theworst day of their lives, those
sorts of stories about crime andthings like that and, of course
, the big headline stuff.
But we don't get granular andwe don't necessarily see
reporting that actually isintended to inform people on
things that can make theirimmediate life better make their
(09:26):
immediate life better.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (09:26):
Granular is kind of where we live, to be
honest, and again, that's bydesign, because this is, you
know, the place where we canplay and we can make a
difference.
You know, our goal is always totry and serve the residents,
make sure that they have whatthey need, and so these kinds of
guides, these looking at youknow, infrastructure some of the
more boring things that maybewouldn't necessarily make it to
the nightly news, some of themore boring things that maybe
wouldn't necessarily make it tothe nightly news we have the
(09:47):
time.
We don't have to fit everythinginto a 30-second segment.
We've also been focusing thisyear especially on presenting
stories and information indifferent ways, because we know
that not everyone wants to sitthere and read a really long
story, and so we've been doingmore with audio and video.
We've been doing more withgraphics and other things like
that.
We're still working on it,we're still adapting.
(10:08):
But one thing that's reallybeneficial is that we're able to
kind of survey our folks.
We do a lot of surveys.
We do reach out to folks in thecommunity and show up to events
and talk to people.
We also have a communityadvisory committee that we can
rely on for some input.
It's made up of members of thecommunity and residents of
(10:29):
Detroit, and they're able toprovide us with feedback of what
they're hearing in theirneighborhoods.
Craig Fahle (10:35):
Loren Abdel-Rizak is my guest right now from
Bridge Detroit.
You mentioned something therethat I want to get to.
You said you're venturing intosome video, you're doing some
podcasts, which you justintroduced, I believe yesterday
a partnership with anotheronline news source, detroit, is
different, that you're going tobe working with Kari Frazier.
As a matter of fact, goodperson Steven Henderson is going
(10:55):
to be working on that an oldfriend.
It almost seems as if yourecognize that.
You know the social media spacethat is where a lot of people,
especially younger people, aregetting their news these days is
not going away anytime soon.
What's it going to take to sortof compete in that space for
some of the flashier, more sortof rumor-centric things fake
(11:18):
news coverage?
I'm making little quotationmarks in the air here that they
think that they're getting,because discerning between
what's real and what's fake isnot always easy.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (11:27):
Yeah, this is the big question, right, I
think all newsrooms are going tobattle with this and we have
folks that are actively outthere trying to provide, you
know, disinformation.
So you have misinformationwhere people you know something
is not correct, butdisinformation is where it's not
correct.
But it's done from a sinisterpoint of view, deliberately to
try and manipulate folks, andwe've seen that time and time
(11:49):
again that this lives out thereon social media.
It's very prominent.
It's in other places you knowother media websites that mimic
news organizations and otherthings.
I think this is an even biggerchallenge with AI and how much
AI is improving, especially froma video and photo perspective.
So I think what this reallycomes down to is a lot of it is
(12:12):
like education.
So, these young folks I canspeak from experience because I
have some younger cousins and Iknow that they've never once
picked up a newspaper in theirlife.
So the key here, I think, isreally trying to reach them
where they're at.
But even that space is socompetitive for getting in front
of eyes.
So I really think that we haveto plan those spaces.
(12:35):
We have to try and serve thepeople the way that they want to
be served, but it also has tostart with education, and so we
are talking about we've beentrying to work out a program
where we'll start to go andspeak to students in some of the
classes around Detroit.
We're going to talk to folks insenior centers and try to kind
of give them a media literacy,you know layout, and offer for
(12:56):
them some resources and explainsome things.
I see it so often where youknow there's a video on social
media and you can tell I cantell that like it's fake, it's
obvious, but it's not labeled,and then I have all you see the
comments of all these peoplebeing like, oh, my goodness,
this is crazy, this is amazing,and you're like, okay.
Craig Fahle (13:16):
It's also fake.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (13:17):
It's also fake, but you see the thing, and
then you have to ask yourselfis what I'm seeing too good to
be true or really unlikely?
And then you have to take thatextra step.
People want instantgratification.
They don't want to take theextra step of verification.
And so now we're getting backto why it's important to have
news organizations still outthere, that why it matters,
(13:39):
because verification is what wedo.
Craig Fahle (13:42):
But we also have an attention span that seems to
be shrinking as a society.
And you know, I actually had aperson who shall remain unnamed,
put back in a response to meTLDR too long didn't read to
which I replied it's not myproblem that you have the
attention span of a net.
You need to read this becauseit's really, really important.
(14:03):
That's a problem in that realreporting, real journalism,
requires nuance, it requiresperspective and it requires
putting things into context,which you can't necessarily do
in a 30 second TikTok or evenjust a short snippet of the news
.
And I appreciate the fact thatthere are organizations out
(14:23):
there that are putting out likenews summaries for people so you
can at least get a bit of itand maybe follow a link if you
want to read more.
But that's a challenge.
How do we get people to bewilling to spend the time to
really understand something?
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (14:36):
This is a question that everyone in the
industry has been trying tofigure out, and I think that
we've seen organizations put alot of resources into this, like
, for example, the WashingtonPost comes to mind.
They did have a full teamworking on TikTok, and so you
know, I think that they saw somesuccess, but I would say that
you know they were the goldstandard for that and they still
(14:57):
didn't solve the problem.
They put the money, theresources, the time and the
effort into it and didn't comeup with like the perfect model,
and so this is a challenge andwe have to figure out what we're
going to be doing.
So for Bridge Detroit, whatthat means, we've been focused
on, you know, launching otherproducts, so we do have a social
media strategy.
We are adding shorter videosthat have information on them.
(15:20):
We've got links on everythingtrying to bring people back to
our website.
We've also launched the DetroitNext podcast, and so the
podcast is really the story ofour newsroom realizing that 2025
is going to be an incrediblyimportant year for the city of
Detroit and its residents.
When it comes to the elections,we're going to have a new mayor.
(15:44):
For the first time in what 12,13 years?
We're going to have new citycouncil members.
They're redistricted.
Some people don't even knowthat they're in a new district.
And then we've also got boardof police commissioners, which a
lot of people ignore, butthey're extremely important
because they are the ones whopolice the police.
And so you know, we've taken itupon ourselves.
(16:04):
We want to be the best resourcefor Detroiters in the city when
they come to say who should Ibe voting for?
How you know how should I bevoting.
We're not going to tell you whoto vote for, but we're going to
give you the information youneed to understand who the
candidates are.
We're also launching so thispodcast.
It's hosted by StephenHenderson and Malachi Barrett.
(16:24):
Malachi is our civic andpolitics reporter.
Craig Fahle (16:29):
He does a good job .
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (16:30):
He has the city council notebook that he
does every week where he sitsthrough the city council
meetings.
Craig Fahle (16:36):
As somebody who used to have that job, I feel
for him.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (16:39):
Yeah, it's a lot, and he takes those really
complicated and long meetingsand condenses them down into
useful newsletters so thatpeople can get the information
they need without having to sitthrough six, eight hours of it.
So it's kind of an extension ofthat.
Knowing that this is importantinformation, how do we get it to
people?
And so it's a channel.
(16:59):
There's going to be clips,there's going to be audio.
There's going to be clips,there's going to be audio,
there's going to be video andthere's going to be a biweekly
podcast.
We're doing it in collaborationwith Detroit is Different.
So I want to shout out KariFrazier, because he is a great
partner and we're so excited towork with him in his studio.
Craig Fahle (17:16):
No, it's fantastic .
I think it's a great idea andit's something that is needed
right now.
I want to get a little bitbigger picture here, because I
think one of the things thatsets Bridge Detroit and Bridge
Michigan apart is the fact youare a nonprofit, right?
You are independent.
You don't have corporateownership.
You don't have the possibilityof your owner deciding that he
wants to switch the editorialshift of your paper, just like
(17:38):
that which, of course, iscosting the Washington Post a
whole lot of subscribers rightnow, but we'll get over that.
But you're not facing the samesort of pressures that the big
newspapers have felt undercorporate ownership in recent
years, where the bottom linematters more than the product
that you're putting out.
And it seems strange if youwant to sell more papers that
(17:59):
you cut at the place thatactually makes the news that
people want to read.
It's backwards.
It seems that everything's alittle bit backwards in the way
that they're approaching thisand the numbers cutting.
Yes, you rely on contributions.
You rely on philanthropiccontributions If businesses want
to support you individuals.
It's an interesting way to go,but how does that insulate you
(18:19):
from some of those otherpressures that we're seeing
newspapers fold under right now?
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (18:24):
So the nonprofit newsroom model is a
growing model around the country.
We are definitely not the firstto do it.
There's multiple nonprofitnewsrooms in the city.
Craig Fahle (18:32):
Every public radio station.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (18:35):
And you know we have some great partners
in this community.
I want to talk about PlanetDetroit and Outlier, and you
know Chalkbeat and you knowBridge Michigan is a partner,
sister Paper and a partner.
So there's a lot of differentmodels out there, people trying
different things.
The reality is is that there'sno perfect model for journalism.
What gives us strength also cancreate potential risks for us.
(19:01):
So nonprofit newsrooms we'relucky, we're blessed because we
do have flexibility, we canexperiment, we tend to be
smaller, we don't have thosecrazy overheads and histories of
like you know, the 150 years onguard type of thing, and so
(19:26):
that allows us to play in spacesthat maybe were not available
and try new things, do things ona smaller scale but quicker.
At the same time, we're verymuch at the whims of
philanthropy, because until wecan find a model that is
completely supported by readersand donors, we have to.
Craig Fahle (19:46):
Where did that go wrong?
What happened?
Because it used to be thatnobody would think twice about
plunking down their 25 cents fortheir newspaper every day.
They got it delivered to theirhome.
They would pay the paper boys$2 when they came to collect
every couple of weeks.
That was something that we justdid, and then we stopped doing
that.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (20:04):
Where it went wrong is the internet.
Craig Fahle (20:09):
Putting Jeannie back in the model.
When it comes to paywalls, Imean, look look at Cranes, who
used to work for, and I readevery single day they're
surviving.
They've got a paywall and theyare very, very fierce about you
going around that paywall and Idon't blame them.
This is how they make theirmoney.
This is how their businessstays.
Afloat is for people paying forthe product.
Why aren't people, do you think, willing to pay for news the
(20:34):
way that they?
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (20:35):
used to be willing to pay for news.
I mean there's a millionreasons, really, but ultimately,
I mean, the internet hasdemocratized information.
Again, we're talking aboutwhether it's verified and gone
through a process of you know,checks.
You get what you pay for, yeah,you get what you pay for.
Basically, bridge Detroit inparticular, we keep everything
free and that's by design.
(20:56):
Again, this is one of thebenefits of being a nonprofit
newsroom is that we get ourfunding from other sources.
We don't have to havesubscriptions.
We want people to subscribe andsupport us.
I do, yeah, and donate to us.
Bridgedetroitcom slash donate.
But you know, we haveflexibility and we have a
(21:17):
mission and that's what makes usdifferent, right?
So our mission is not and again, not to insult anybody our
mission is not to, you know,fill the pockets of some hedge
fund.
We're not making money for aconglomerate.
Every cent that we make getsput back into the business so
that we can continue to do goodjournalism and provide the
service.
And so, you know, a lot oftimes when we get our donations,
(21:39):
they're $5 or less, because,you know, when you serve an area
like Detroit, we're dealingwith a lot of low-income people
here and some people need theservice.
They like the service but theyjust can't afford or they don't
have any money to offer.
I think it's wild that we'll getmessages sometimes where it's
$5 from someone and they messageus and say this is all I could
(22:00):
give you after you know, I'vepaid my bills this month.
I wish I could give more, but Ijust want to give something.
Or people will message us andsay I don't have anything extra
this month, but you know, butmaybe I will try to support you
in the future, and so it's justvery interesting coming from
such different models.
Previously in my career I wasat the news when they instituted
(22:21):
the paywall and it was socontroversial at the time, but
it was so necessary, and I thinkthat it's been for at least
five years now.
I don't know necessarily whatthe status is now for the news
and the free press, but you know, if that's what you need to do
to be able to stay in businessand keep journalism alive, then
(22:43):
that's what you have to do.
So really you have to make thecase every single day, with
everything that you do, thatthis is worth paying for.
There is value here.
Craig Fahle (22:53):
Yeah, you know, it's one of those things where I
will you know, send a link toan article to somebody and they
say, oh, it's stuck behind apaywall.
I'm like you know, for twobucks they've got a special
right now for $2 for the nexttwo months for you to actually
get access to this article.
Maybe you should pony up and Iusually will do that, and you
know, leave it at that.
But OK, one last question foryou, and I sort of want to bring
(23:13):
this back because we are apublic relations agency here at
VVK but the relationship betweenpublic relations agencies and
journalists is a very importantone.
We are reliant on each other forinformation.
Sometimes, you know, it can bea little bit adversarial, but
not usually.
I mean normally.
We want to cooperate in any waywe can.
We want to give you theinformation that you're looking
for.
(23:33):
We want you to cover our stuff.
So it's sort of a give and takekind of a thing.
One of the things I've seen inPR recently is that, with some
of the cutbacks we've seen innews organizations across the
country, is that a lot of what Iput out there in press release
form almost gets verbatimprinted in papers, and while I'm
(23:54):
thankful for the coverage formy clients, at the same time.
That's not the way thisrelationship is supposed to work
.
I'm just sort of wondering,like what's the level of
skepticism on press releases youget?
I guess what would make yourjob a little bit easier when
discerning what's important,what's not.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (24:12):
Well, first of all, you should ask for a
byline whenever they're runningyour stories.
I mean, I think that is also asymptom of having fewer people
in newsrooms.
Craig Fahle (24:23):
Yeah, I'm not blaming anybody for doing it.
It's just they need content andthey don't have people.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (24:27):
Yeah, it would have been unheard of to
just run a straight pressrelease for a lot of newsrooms.
Been unheard of to just run astraight press release for a lot
of newsrooms.
I think, in terms of offeringlike suggestions or tips for PR
folks when they send out theirreleases, I do have some ideas.
Number one I would say don'twrite the story for your
newsrooms.
You know they have.
If they have folks that aregoing to be doing the story,
(24:49):
they want to be able to do itthemselves.
I would say provide all theinformation that you can to be
able to do it themselves.
I would say provide all theinformation that you can Be
prepared to answer questions,because there's going to be
questions.
That's one of the most annoyingthings about us.
We always have questions andthen, you know, just make sure
that there's information forfollow-up too.
(25:09):
If there's other partiesinvolved that you need to be,
you know, reached, provideinformation for them, contact
information, the one-stop shopkind of press releases when
those come out.
That is, it's like a blessingbecause then you don't have to
try and go and chase aroundother things like that.
But also be prepared that youknow the journalists are going
to find things and approachangles that you may not have
(25:31):
seen.
So just understand that that'spart of our job, that we're
doing.
Craig Fahle (25:35):
Yeah, and I try to advise all of my clients that
that is the case and that youare likely to be asked this if
you put this out there and youshould be prepared to respond to
this, and if you want coverage,you're going to have to do some
of these things.
So, it's always a bit of a giveor take, but I do my best to be
as responsive as possible.
You, these things.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (25:53):
So it's always a bit of a give or take,
but I do my best to be asresponsive as possible.
Craig Fahle (25:55):
So you guys do a great job.
Well, I appreciate that verymuch.
Well, so does Bridge Detroit,and I wanted to give people an
opportunity to learn more aboutwhat you're doing.
And again, bridge Michigan,also hugely important, more of a
statewide focus, obviously.
Bridge Detroit, very locallyfocused, been in business for
about five years now.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (26:09):
Yeah, actually, our fifth anniversary
is May 15th, so it's comingquickly.
Craig Fahle (26:14):
I assume there's going to be a giant party,
lavish party with I'm sorry,Faygo and cupcakes, or something
.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (26:20):
You know what's funny?
We really did talk about this,that we wanted to do that, but
we actually decided this year toprioritize the elections and so
we're going to be putting ourresources into that.
We are going to be having a lotof events coming up this year
and there will be moreinformation about that on
BridgeDetroitcom.
We are working to make sure wecan hold a city council district
(26:44):
meeting in every single one ofthe districts for meet and
greets with the candidates,where people can get a chance to
ask them questions, shake theirhand.
As a journalist, I have hadaccess in my career to political
candidates and I've alwaysbelieved that if you can be in a
room with someone and get achance to meet them and talk to
them, you will know who to votefor.
You're going to figure it out,especially if you have some
(27:07):
backup information and can getsome really a sense into the
kind of person that they are andwhat they believe in, and I
want to make sure we candemocratize that access for the
residents of Detroit.
Craig Fahle (27:18):
Well, and it is one way of blunting negative
campaign ads too, that seem tocloud people's minds.
When you actually meet somebody, you can make a decision for
yourself whether or not thenegative things you're hearing
about.
Them are accurate or not, butit helps.
Well, Lauren, we appreciateyour time very much.
Thank you.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (27:33):
Thank you so much.
Craig Fahle (27:35):
Lorraine Abdel-Razak is the executive
director at Bridge Detroit.
We appreciate her joining ustoday for the VVK podcast, and
that's going to do it for thisweek.
Just to let you know.
Our goal is to put one out eachand every month.
Now there may be occasionswhere we have special episodes
that we will sneak in from timeto time, but we will always let
you know.
Just follow VVK on LinkedIn, onFacebook, anywhere else that
(27:59):
you are on social media.
We've got accounts there.
We'll let you know about newepisodes that are coming out and
what they're going to be about,and hopefully get some feedback
from you as well.
Don't forget if you've gotsuggestions for people you'd
like me to talk to or somethoughts on things that we need
to tackle, send me an email.
Craig at VVKAgencycom.
Pretty simple, Craig atVVKAgencycom.
(28:20):
Thanks so much for listening.
We will be back soon.
Greetings everyone and welcome to the VVK podcast.
I'm your host, craig Folley.
On this program.
We connect you with peopledoing important work in our
community and hopefully we learnsomething along the way, and
one of the things I plan to doon occasion for this program is
to introduce you to some mediamembers who are tasked with
bringing you the news andinformation that you need to be
informed.
(00:30):
The hard work of reporters,editors, anchors, news directors
and publishers is a criticalcomponent of our democracy, and
all of them play an importantrole in the work that we do here
at VVK.
Now, as a communications NPRagency, we know how critical
clear, honest and impactfulcommunication is, not only for
organizations but for thecommunities they serve.
(00:52):
Today, we'll connect the dotsbetween effective messaging and
the essential work that BridgeDetroit does to communicate the
stories that matter most to thepeople of Detroit.
Today's guest is LorenAbdel-Rizak, executive Director
of Bridge Detroit.
Now, at a time when pollsroutinely show Americans' faith
in mainstream media is eroding,it is important to talk about
(01:12):
the impact that's having on ourdiscourse and our true
understanding of local, nationaland world events.
Bridge Detroit is taking aunique approach to building
audience trust.
We'll talk about that and alsoabout what we can do to
encourage people to seek outquality journalism and beat back
the dual threats ofmisinformation and
disinformation.
That's what's for dinner ontoday's VBK podcast.
(01:34):
Thanks for joining us.
Hey, welcome to the VVK podcast.
I'm Craig Folley, glad to haveyou with us today, and this is
(01:55):
an important discussion thatwe're going to have today,
because this is an interestingera we're living in when it
comes to the truth, when itcomes to journalism, when it
comes to people getting accuratereporting, accurate news and
building their opinions based onfacts, not conjecture, not
speculation, not flat-out lies.
It's a challenge to do so inthis day and age, mostly because
(02:16):
, frankly, our long-time mediais facing significant challenges
.
We have all seen staff cutbacksat major newspapers across the
country.
We've staff cutbacks at majornewspapers across the country.
We've seen ownership change atmajor newspapers across the
country.
We have seen new online andcable television players that,
basically, are skewing the newsany way they want, and we have
also seen social media have asignificant impact on what
(02:40):
people actually understand andwhere their base of knowledge is
coming from.
It is creating a challenge andit is showing up frankly in our
political results, and I don'tnecessarily want to suggest that
anybody made a bad vote orvoted the right way or anything
in this last election.
But whether or not you made yourdecision on who to vote for in
any election, was it based onfacts and relevant information?
(03:01):
And where do you go to getfactual information, something
you can trust?
It's becoming more and moredifficult for people to find
every single day, so this isgoing to be an ongoing
conversation I'm going to behaving on this podcast over the
course of however long it takesfor us to sort this out, and my
first guest on this year'sversion of the VVK podcast to
talk about it is LorenAbdel-Rizak.
(03:22):
She's the executive director atBridge Detroit, a part of
Bridge Michigan, a part of theCenter for Michigan.
Welcome to the program.
It's a pleasure to have youhere today.
Greg, thanks for having me onWell and I gave you a little bit
to think about there at thebeginning.
But you know, bridge Detroit issomething that didn't exist
until 2020.
And, frankly, you know we arepretty well covered here in
(03:42):
Detroit when it comes to a medialandscape.
We have a couple of differentradio stations that are
dedicated to doing news.
We have two daily papers, whichis something that most
communities can't say that theyhave.
We've got multiple televisionstations that take their local
news game fairly seriously andyou know we thought we had it
all, but we still started seeingthe same cutbacks that are
(04:02):
impacting everybody else.
Bridge Michigan comes along, Ithink back in about 2016 is when
they first formed.
Four years later, bridgeDetroit comes along to sort of
fill a gap that was created whenwe started seeing these
cutbacks.
Local news coverage was reallytaking a hit.
So talk a bit about BridgeDetroit, its creation and what
need you saw and how you thoughtyou might be able to fill it.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (04:25):
Well, first off, you're absolutely right.
Detroit is incredibly luckybecause there are not a lot of
cities out there that have twodaily papers or as many nightly
newscasts in different stationsout there.
The other reason Detroit isreally lucky is because there
are a lot of alternative andnonprofit news organizations
that are operating here as well,so if you are a resident in
(04:47):
this area, you have a lot ofdifferent options for getting
information.
Bridge Detroit was reallycreated to kind of, like you
said, fill a gap and provideservice to residents.
We are a hyper-local nonprofitnewsroom.
We're also nonpartisan, whichmeans that we're not going to
tell you who to vote for, how tovote, but we are going to tell
you the importance of why itmatters, why you should be
(05:09):
engaged in civic life, and soour goal and our mission really
is to provide residents ofDetroit with the resources, the
information and to empower themto be able to make good
decisions when it comes to theirown everyday lives.
Craig Fahle (05:24):
Well, you know, when you talk about hyperlocal,
especially here in a city likeDetroit and this is one thing I
learned in working withgovernment I mean trust is
everything.
Getting people to trust thatthe information that you're
bringing to them is accurate andsomething that is going to be
helpful to them is a reallydifficult thing to accomplish.
How much time did it take youto sort of figure out which
approach you needed to take tomake sure you were getting
(05:45):
through to people that are verynaturally skeptical towards a
lot of messaging?
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (05:49):
So this is an ongoing battle that we have
all the time.
I would never say like, oh,we've accomplished it, we've
earned trust.
So this is true for anynewsroom, including ours Trust
is very easy to lose and it'sextremely difficult to get, and
part of that is about beingconsistent.
We try to build ourselves as aplace where it's not
(06:11):
transactional.
We want to be able to reach outto people, talk to them, hear
their opinions, talk aboutreally just the big issues in
their lives, even if it'ssomething that on a larger scale
, isn't a huge impact, we wantto know and so that way we can
really build relationshipsbefore we have to rely on them.
And so I don't ever want toknock any of the other newsrooms
(06:33):
in town, because I did.
I used to work at the DetroitNews for 10 years, I worked at
Cranes for two, and so you knowevery reporter that's out there
works on building trust andworking, especially if you're
working a beat and you'retalking to the same group of
people over and over again.
The issue is that you knowthere's often a gap in terms of
(06:55):
low income, in terms of BIPOCaudiences, bipoc residents that
don't always get to have thatinteractive experience.
(07:30):
There's a Pew Research studythat was showing that you know,
the younger you are, the blackeryou thing happening to them.
We want to make sure that we'rein their communities, that they
know what we're doing, theyknow who we are and what our
values are ahead of time.
That's a very different modelthan some other organizations,
but it's also a testament tobeing independent and being able
to make our own decisions, notbeing owned by a hedge fund or
(07:51):
some other kind of biggerconglomerate.
We don't necessarily have to dothe daily rush of news.
In fact, at Bridge Detroit wedon't do the daily rush of news
because we know we can't do itas well as the news and the free
press and the TV stations, andso we're never going to try to
(08:13):
be that.
But we try to fill the gaps andspend our time talking about
some of the better things thatare going on in the community
that may be overlooked.
Craig Fahle (08:18):
Not just that, but you're also talking about
things that actually matter tothe people that you're serving
right now.
You know, if you go onto BridgeDetroit's website right now, you
can see stories that aretalking about foreclosure
prevention.
You can see stories about whatpeople need to do to become a
homeowner as opposed to a renter, you know, and talking about
programs that exist for peopleout there.
You talk about the risks topotential infrastructure damage.
(08:41):
You know, and what's going tohappen if we don't address some
of the underlying structuralproblems we have, with the water
main break, for instance, weexperienced a couple of weeks
ago or a week ago in SouthwestDetroit, and you know the fact
that, hey, without some action,this is going to continue
happening.
There are a lot of stories thatdirectly impact people where
they live.
That is not something younecessarily get and again, not
(09:03):
to knock the news and free pressor the TV news but they do
focus on, as you mentioned, theworst day of their lives, those
sorts of stories about crime andthings like that and, of course
, the big headline stuff.
But we don't get granular andwe don't necessarily see
reporting that actually isintended to inform people on
things that can make theirimmediate life better make their
(09:26):
immediate life better.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (09:26):
Granular is kind of where we live, to be
honest, and again, that's bydesign, because this is, you
know, the place where we canplay and we can make a
difference.
You know, our goal is always totry and serve the residents,
make sure that they have whatthey need, and so these kinds of
guides, these looking at youknow, infrastructure some of the
more boring things that maybewouldn't necessarily make it to
the nightly news, some of themore boring things that maybe
wouldn't necessarily make it tothe nightly news we have the
(09:47):
time.
We don't have to fit everythinginto a 30-second segment.
We've also been focusing thisyear especially on presenting
stories and information indifferent ways, because we know
that not everyone wants to sitthere and read a really long
story, and so we've been doingmore with audio and video.
We've been doing more withgraphics and other things like
that.
We're still working on it,we're still adapting.
(10:08):
But one thing that's reallybeneficial is that we're able to
kind of survey our folks.
We do a lot of surveys.
We do reach out to folks in thecommunity and show up to events
and talk to people.
We also have a communityadvisory committee that we can
rely on for some input.
It's made up of members of thecommunity and residents of
(10:29):
Detroit, and they're able toprovide us with feedback of what
they're hearing in theirneighborhoods.
Craig Fahle (10:35):
Loren Abdel-Rizak is my guest right now from
Bridge Detroit.
You mentioned something therethat I want to get to.
You said you're venturing intosome video, you're doing some
podcasts, which you justintroduced, I believe yesterday
a partnership with anotheronline news source, detroit, is
different, that you're going tobe working with Kari Frazier.
As a matter of fact, goodperson Steven Henderson is going
(10:55):
to be working on that an oldfriend.
It almost seems as if yourecognize that.
You know the social media spacethat is where a lot of people,
especially younger people, aregetting their news these days is
not going away anytime soon.
What's it going to take to sortof compete in that space for
some of the flashier, more sortof rumor-centric things fake
(11:18):
news coverage?
I'm making little quotationmarks in the air here that they
think that they're getting,because discerning between
what's real and what's fake isnot always easy.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (11:27):
Yeah, this is the big question, right, I
think all newsrooms are going tobattle with this and we have
folks that are actively outthere trying to provide, you
know, disinformation.
So you have misinformationwhere people you know something
is not correct, butdisinformation is where it's not
correct.
But it's done from a sinisterpoint of view, deliberately to
try and manipulate folks, andwe've seen that time and time
(11:49):
again that this lives out thereon social media.
It's very prominent.
It's in other places you knowother media websites that mimic
news organizations and otherthings.
I think this is an even biggerchallenge with AI and how much
AI is improving, especially froma video and photo perspective.
So I think what this reallycomes down to is a lot of it is
(12:12):
like education.
So, these young folks I canspeak from experience because I
have some younger cousins and Iknow that they've never once
picked up a newspaper in theirlife.
So the key here, I think, isreally trying to reach them
where they're at.
But even that space is socompetitive for getting in front
of eyes.
So I really think that we haveto plan those spaces.
(12:35):
We have to try and serve thepeople the way that they want to
be served, but it also has tostart with education, and so we
are talking about we've beentrying to work out a program
where we'll start to go andspeak to students in some of the
classes around Detroit.
We're going to talk to folks insenior centers and try to kind
of give them a media literacy,you know layout, and offer for
(12:56):
them some resources and explainsome things.
I see it so often where youknow there's a video on social
media and you can tell I cantell that like it's fake, it's
obvious, but it's not labeled,and then I have all you see the
comments of all these peoplebeing like, oh, my goodness,
this is crazy, this is amazing,and you're like, okay.
Craig Fahle (13:16):
It's also fake.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (13:17):
It's also fake, but you see the thing, and
then you have to ask yourselfis what I'm seeing too good to
be true or really unlikely?
And then you have to take thatextra step.
People want instantgratification.
They don't want to take theextra step of verification.
And so now we're getting backto why it's important to have
news organizations still outthere, that why it matters,
(13:39):
because verification is what wedo.
Craig Fahle (13:42):
But we also have an attention span that seems to
be shrinking as a society.
And you know, I actually had aperson who shall remain unnamed,
put back in a response to meTLDR too long didn't read to
which I replied it's not myproblem that you have the
attention span of a net.
You need to read this becauseit's really, really important.
(14:03):
That's a problem in that realreporting, real journalism,
requires nuance, it requiresperspective and it requires
putting things into context,which you can't necessarily do
in a 30 second TikTok or evenjust a short snippet of the news
.
And I appreciate the fact thatthere are organizations out
(14:23):
there that are putting out likenews summaries for people so you
can at least get a bit of itand maybe follow a link if you
want to read more.
But that's a challenge.
How do we get people to bewilling to spend the time to
really understand something?
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (14:36):
This is a question that everyone in the
industry has been trying tofigure out, and I think that
we've seen organizations put alot of resources into this, like
, for example, the WashingtonPost comes to mind.
They did have a full teamworking on TikTok, and so you
know, I think that they saw somesuccess, but I would say that
you know they were the goldstandard for that and they still
(14:57):
didn't solve the problem.
They put the money, theresources, the time and the
effort into it and didn't comeup with like the perfect model,
and so this is a challenge andwe have to figure out what we're
going to be doing.
So for Bridge Detroit, whatthat means, we've been focused
on, you know, launching otherproducts, so we do have a social
media strategy.
We are adding shorter videosthat have information on them.
(15:20):
We've got links on everythingtrying to bring people back to
our website.
We've also launched the DetroitNext podcast, and so the
podcast is really the story ofour newsroom realizing that 2025
is going to be an incrediblyimportant year for the city of
Detroit and its residents.
When it comes to the elections,we're going to have a new mayor.
(15:44):
For the first time in what 12,13 years?
We're going to have new citycouncil members.
They're redistricted.
Some people don't even knowthat they're in a new district.
And then we've also got boardof police commissioners, which a
lot of people ignore, butthey're extremely important
because they are the ones whopolice the police.
And so you know, we've taken itupon ourselves.
(16:04):
We want to be the best resourcefor Detroiters in the city when
they come to say who should Ibe voting for?
How you know how should I bevoting.
We're not going to tell you whoto vote for, but we're going to
give you the information youneed to understand who the
candidates are.
We're also launching so thispodcast.
It's hosted by StephenHenderson and Malachi Barrett.
(16:24):
Malachi is our civic andpolitics reporter.
Craig Fahle (16:29):
He does a good job .
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (16:30):
He has the city council notebook that he
does every week where he sitsthrough the city council
meetings.
Craig Fahle (16:36):
As somebody who used to have that job, I feel
for him.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (16:39):
Yeah, it's a lot, and he takes those really
complicated and long meetingsand condenses them down into
useful newsletters so thatpeople can get the information
they need without having to sitthrough six, eight hours of it.
So it's kind of an extension ofthat.
Knowing that this is importantinformation, how do we get it to
people?
And so it's a channel.
(16:59):
There's going to be clips,there's going to be audio.
There's going to be clips,there's going to be audio,
there's going to be video andthere's going to be a biweekly
podcast.
We're doing it in collaborationwith Detroit is Different.
So I want to shout out KariFrazier, because he is a great
partner and we're so excited towork with him in his studio.
Craig Fahle (17:16):
No, it's fantastic .
I think it's a great idea andit's something that is needed
right now.
I want to get a little bitbigger picture here, because I
think one of the things thatsets Bridge Detroit and Bridge
Michigan apart is the fact youare a nonprofit, right?
You are independent.
You don't have corporateownership.
You don't have the possibilityof your owner deciding that he
wants to switch the editorialshift of your paper, just like
(17:38):
that which, of course, iscosting the Washington Post a
whole lot of subscribers rightnow, but we'll get over that.
But you're not facing the samesort of pressures that the big
newspapers have felt undercorporate ownership in recent
years, where the bottom linematters more than the product
that you're putting out.
And it seems strange if youwant to sell more papers that
(17:59):
you cut at the place thatactually makes the news that
people want to read.
It's backwards.
It seems that everything's alittle bit backwards in the way
that they're approaching thisand the numbers cutting.
Yes, you rely on contributions.
You rely on philanthropiccontributions If businesses want
to support you individuals.
It's an interesting way to go,but how does that insulate you
(18:19):
from some of those otherpressures that we're seeing
newspapers fold under right now?
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (18:24):
So the nonprofit newsroom model is a
growing model around the country.
We are definitely not the firstto do it.
There's multiple nonprofitnewsrooms in the city.
Craig Fahle (18:32):
Every public radio station.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (18:35):
And you know we have some great partners
in this community.
I want to talk about PlanetDetroit and Outlier, and you
know Chalkbeat and you knowBridge Michigan is a partner,
sister Paper and a partner.
So there's a lot of differentmodels out there, people trying
different things.
The reality is is that there'sno perfect model for journalism.
What gives us strength also cancreate potential risks for us.
(19:01):
So nonprofit newsrooms we'relucky, we're blessed because we
do have flexibility, we canexperiment, we tend to be
smaller, we don't have thosecrazy overheads and histories of
like you know, the 150 years onguard type of thing, and so
(19:26):
that allows us to play in spacesthat maybe were not available
and try new things, do things ona smaller scale but quicker.
At the same time, we're verymuch at the whims of
philanthropy, because until wecan find a model that is
completely supported by readersand donors, we have to.
Craig Fahle (19:46):
Where did that go wrong?
What happened?
Because it used to be thatnobody would think twice about
plunking down their 25 cents fortheir newspaper every day.
They got it delivered to theirhome.
They would pay the paper boys$2 when they came to collect
every couple of weeks.
That was something that we justdid, and then we stopped doing
that.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (20:04):
Where it went wrong is the internet.
Craig Fahle (20:09):
Putting Jeannie back in the model.
When it comes to paywalls, Imean, look look at Cranes, who
used to work for, and I readevery single day they're
surviving.
They've got a paywall and theyare very, very fierce about you
going around that paywall and Idon't blame them.
This is how they make theirmoney.
This is how their businessstays.
Afloat is for people paying forthe product.
Why aren't people, do you think, willing to pay for news the
(20:34):
way that they?
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (20:35):
used to be willing to pay for news.
I mean there's a millionreasons, really, but ultimately,
I mean, the internet hasdemocratized information.
Again, we're talking aboutwhether it's verified and gone
through a process of you know,checks.
You get what you pay for, yeah,you get what you pay for.
Basically, bridge Detroit inparticular, we keep everything
free and that's by design.
(20:56):
Again, this is one of thebenefits of being a nonprofit
newsroom is that we get ourfunding from other sources.
We don't have to havesubscriptions.
We want people to subscribe andsupport us.
I do, yeah, and donate to us.
Bridgedetroitcom slash donate.
But you know, we haveflexibility and we have a
(21:17):
mission and that's what makes usdifferent, right?
So our mission is not and again, not to insult anybody our
mission is not to, you know,fill the pockets of some hedge
fund.
We're not making money for aconglomerate.
Every cent that we make getsput back into the business so
that we can continue to do goodjournalism and provide the
service.
And so, you know, a lot oftimes when we get our donations,
(21:39):
they're $5 or less, because,you know, when you serve an area
like Detroit, we're dealingwith a lot of low-income people
here and some people need theservice.
They like the service but theyjust can't afford or they don't
have any money to offer.
I think it's wild that we'll getmessages sometimes where it's
$5 from someone and they messageus and say this is all I could
(22:00):
give you after you know, I'vepaid my bills this month.
I wish I could give more, but Ijust want to give something.
Or people will message us andsay I don't have anything extra
this month, but you know, butmaybe I will try to support you
in the future, and so it's justvery interesting coming from
such different models.
Previously in my career I wasat the news when they instituted
(22:21):
the paywall and it was socontroversial at the time, but
it was so necessary, and I thinkthat it's been for at least
five years now.
I don't know necessarily whatthe status is now for the news
and the free press, but you know, if that's what you need to do
to be able to stay in businessand keep journalism alive, then
(22:43):
that's what you have to do.
So really you have to make thecase every single day, with
everything that you do, thatthis is worth paying for.
There is value here.
Craig Fahle (22:53):
Yeah, you know, it's one of those things where I
will you know, send a link toan article to somebody and they
say, oh, it's stuck behind apaywall.
I'm like you know, for twobucks they've got a special
right now for $2 for the nexttwo months for you to actually
get access to this article.
Maybe you should pony up and Iusually will do that, and you
know, leave it at that.
But OK, one last question foryou, and I sort of want to bring
(23:13):
this back because we are apublic relations agency here at
VVK but the relationship betweenpublic relations agencies and
journalists is a very importantone.
We are reliant on each other forinformation.
Sometimes, you know, it can bea little bit adversarial, but
not usually.
I mean normally.
We want to cooperate in any waywe can.
We want to give you theinformation that you're looking
for.
(23:33):
We want you to cover our stuff.
So it's sort of a give and takekind of a thing.
One of the things I've seen inPR recently is that, with some
of the cutbacks we've seen innews organizations across the
country, is that a lot of what Iput out there in press release
form almost gets verbatimprinted in papers, and while I'm
(23:54):
thankful for the coverage formy clients, at the same time.
That's not the way thisrelationship is supposed to work
.
I'm just sort of wondering,like what's the level of
skepticism on press releases youget?
I guess what would make yourjob a little bit easier when
discerning what's important,what's not.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (24:12):
Well, first of all, you should ask for a
byline whenever they're runningyour stories.
I mean, I think that is also asymptom of having fewer people
in newsrooms.
Craig Fahle (24:23):
Yeah, I'm not blaming anybody for doing it.
It's just they need content andthey don't have people.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (24:27):
Yeah, it would have been unheard of to
just run a straight pressrelease for a lot of newsrooms.
Been unheard of to just run astraight press release for a lot
of newsrooms.
I think, in terms of offeringlike suggestions or tips for PR
folks when they send out theirreleases, I do have some ideas.
Number one I would say don'twrite the story for your
newsrooms.
You know they have.
If they have folks that aregoing to be doing the story,
(24:49):
they want to be able to do itthemselves.
I would say provide all theinformation that you can to be
able to do it themselves.
I would say provide all theinformation that you can Be
prepared to answer questions,because there's going to be
questions.
That's one of the most annoyingthings about us.
We always have questions andthen, you know, just make sure
that there's information forfollow-up too.
(25:09):
If there's other partiesinvolved that you need to be,
you know, reached, provideinformation for them, contact
information, the one-stop shopkind of press releases when
those come out.
That is, it's like a blessingbecause then you don't have to
try and go and chase aroundother things like that.
But also be prepared that youknow the journalists are going
to find things and approachangles that you may not have
(25:31):
seen.
So just understand that that'spart of our job, that we're
doing.
Craig Fahle (25:35):
Yeah, and I try to advise all of my clients that
that is the case and that youare likely to be asked this if
you put this out there and youshould be prepared to respond to
this, and if you want coverage,you're going to have to do some
of these things.
So, it's always a bit of a giveor take, but I do my best to be
as responsive as possible.
You, these things.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (25:53):
So it's always a bit of a give or take,
but I do my best to be asresponsive as possible.
Craig Fahle (25:55):
So you guys do a great job.
Well, I appreciate that verymuch.
Well, so does Bridge Detroit,and I wanted to give people an
opportunity to learn more aboutwhat you're doing.
And again, bridge Michigan,also hugely important, more of a
statewide focus, obviously.
Bridge Detroit, very locallyfocused, been in business for
about five years now.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (26:09):
Yeah, actually, our fifth anniversary
is May 15th, so it's comingquickly.
Craig Fahle (26:14):
I assume there's going to be a giant party,
lavish party with I'm sorry,Faygo and cupcakes, or something
.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (26:20):
You know what's funny?
We really did talk about this,that we wanted to do that, but
we actually decided this year toprioritize the elections and so
we're going to be putting ourresources into that.
We are going to be having a lotof events coming up this year
and there will be moreinformation about that on
BridgeDetroitcom.
We are working to make sure wecan hold a city council district
(26:44):
meeting in every single one ofthe districts for meet and
greets with the candidates,where people can get a chance to
ask them questions, shake theirhand.
As a journalist, I have hadaccess in my career to political
candidates and I've alwaysbelieved that if you can be in a
room with someone and get achance to meet them and talk to
them, you will know who to votefor.
You're going to figure it out,especially if you have some
(27:07):
backup information and can getsome really a sense into the
kind of person that they are andwhat they believe in, and I
want to make sure we candemocratize that access for the
residents of Detroit.
Craig Fahle (27:18):
Well, and it is one way of blunting negative
campaign ads too, that seem tocloud people's minds.
When you actually meet somebody, you can make a decision for
yourself whether or not thenegative things you're hearing
about.
Them are accurate or not, butit helps.
Well, Lauren, we appreciateyour time very much.
Thank you.
Lauren Abdel-Razzaq (27:33):
Thank you so much.
Craig Fahle (27:35):
Lorraine Abdel-Razak is the executive
director at Bridge Detroit.
We appreciate her joining ustoday for the VVK podcast, and
that's going to do it for thisweek.
Just to let you know.
Our goal is to put one out eachand every month.
Now there may be occasionswhere we have special episodes
that we will sneak in from timeto time, but we will always let
you know.
Just follow VVK on LinkedIn, onFacebook, anywhere else that
(27:59):
you are on social media.
We've got accounts there.
We'll let you know about newepisodes that are coming out and
what they're going to be about,and hopefully get some feedback
from you as well.
Don't forget if you've gotsuggestions for people you'd
like me to talk to or somethoughts on things that we need
to tackle, send me an email.
Craig at VVKAgencycom.
Pretty simple, Craig atVVKAgencycom.
(28:20):
Thanks so much for listening.
We will be back soon.
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